The gaming industry has historically provided exciting leisure activity and has been a popular source of revenue and jobs for communities that promote casinos and riverboats. Such establishments typically have card tables that may be customized for particular games such as blackjack, poker, etc. Casino type card games may be played with standard fifty-two card decks, and games such as blackjack may be played with several standard decks assembled in a shoe. Various methods may be employed for shuffling.
Poker games may or may not include a separate dealer who does not receive a hand but merely distributes cards to each active player hand. In private poker games, the deal may shift between players for each hand. By comparison, in blackjack, a “Dealer” acts as an agent of the casino or “house,” and deals herself a hand in each game. Each player then plays her hand against the hand of the Dealer. Further details of standard casino type blackjack are not described herein because such details are well known to those skilled in the art. Typical variations of blackjack may include “house rules,” including options for player side bets, wager increases, payoff amounts or percentage, Hit options, hand splitting, etc., and may include separate rules for how the Dealer must play her hand, such as by specifying when the Dealer is required to stand, etc. The Dealer wins, loses, or ties individually against each player's hand. House rules may permit a player to play more than one hand at a time. Each player hand is wagered against the hand of the Dealer, where the wager is collected by the Dealer if the Dealer's hand wins, and where the Dealer pays to the player an amount equal to the player's wager if the Dealer loses to that particular player.
Casino type games may be played as a social activity among live participants using actual cards, or may be played on automated machines such as those known generically as “video poker” type games or as “video slots.” A casino type game may also be played on one or more cellular telephones, as an interactive internet game, as a computer software program, on a stand-alone hand-held unit such as a GAMEBOY™ unit, as a pre-installed game in a computer operating system, and in various other formats and media such as three-dimensional movie facilities, portable multi-function communication devices, and others.
There is a need for new casino type games suitable for being played in gaming establishments and in other interactive situations.